The Iran Cinema Organization has authorized a film project, which plans to spotlight the life of the founder of the Persian Empire Cyrus the Great, producer Ali Mo'allem said on Saturday. The application for permission to produce the project entitled "Cyrus the Great" was submitted to the organization two years ago, Mo'allem said in a press release.

This combination photo shows producer Ali Mo'allem (L)
and Masud Jafari-Jozani and an image of Cyrus the Great.

The screenplay for the film has been written by Masud Jafari-Jozani, who also will direct it.

"He has written the script carefully based on reliable historical sources with the help of several historians," Mo'allem stated.

"At the present time while Iran has been attacked by ahistorical films, I hope we can take a step to introduce the Iranian civilization and one of the heroes of our country by this film," he added.

Mo'allem said that he will begin to seek other producers to invest in this project.

Mo'allem announced in June 2010 that he plans to make a blockbuster on Cyrus the Great. He said that the production of the film may cost $70 million.

He added that if it is produced on a lower budget it will be similar to so many other minor films that have been previously produced on Cyrus the Great.

He said that he had received about 6,000 emails offering help for the project ranging from US$1 to $100,000.

"However, no governmental official has made any comments about this project," he lamented.

- Hollywood returns to the battlefield with'300 : Rise of an Empire' which made a big splash at this year's Comic Con. It's a sequel to the Swords and Sandals film adapted from Frank Miller's controversial comic book about an ancient feud which opposed a handful of Spartan warriors to the invading Persian Army at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C. -Darius Kadivar - 3/17/18

- The historian Herodotus of Halicarnassus wrote in Book 7, Chapter 187 that: "Amongst all these immense numbers there was not a man who, for stature and noble bearing, was more worthy than Xerxes to wield so vast a power." Yet, the Warner Bros.' movies 300, and its followup 300: Rise of an Empire" which premiered last week, elected to characterize the Achaemenid king based on the eponymous Frank Miller comic book series. -John Trikeriotis - 3/16/14

- With the battle at Thermopylae (meaning Hot Gates) in 480 BCE Persian history became Hellenic (Greek) history, and when the (religious) war-weary Europeans pulling out of the crusading Middle Ages picked the ancient Hellenes and Romans as the pillars of the Western Civilization, Greek history became world history. -A.J. Cave - 3/10/14

- Last week we celebrated the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King (1929-1968), the legendary African-American civil rights movement leader, who fundamentally changed the way we tackle the thorny issue of race and racial equality in the United States. And speaking of calendars, on 7 March 2014 (less than 7 weeks), the 300: Rise of an Empire movie will come to a theater near you. -A.J. Cave - 1/27/14